All-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are used for transportation, recreation, and as tools to help get work done around a person's home, garden, or farm. Utility-terrain vehicles (UTVs) are a cousin of all-terrain vehicles with similar functionality, but with more truck-like features whose use is more focused on doing work around a person's home, garden, or farm. The use of these vehicles for work not only saves the user time, but also prevents back and muscle injuries due to overexertion. Add-on equipment is available, for example, to mow lawns, aerate lawns, transport materials, in baskets or carts for example, and plow snow from one's driveway. When making a purchasing decision, a prospective buyer of such add-on equipment weighs factors such as ease of use, convenience in attaching and detaching the add-on equipment, as well as expense. This decision usually precludes the use of traditional hydraulic systems due to their large initial expense, the time and effort required to install and remove these systems from the multi-use ATV/UTV (a separate hydraulic pump is usually driven by a vehicle engine through a V-belt, which makes retrofitting ATVs/UTVs, let alone removing such systems, impractical), and the inconvenience of dealing with hydraulic fluid leaks and system maintenance. While many types of add-on equipment are available to the ATV/UTV owner, the functionality of a loader has not been incorporated into a standalone attachment available for use on such widely used vehicles.
Therefore, what is needed is an attachment for all-terrain vehicles and utility-terrain vehicles that conveniently provides the functionality of a loader to these widely used vehicles without the expense, permanence, and hassle of traditional hydraulic systems.